Chapter Fifteen
“How are things going?” Hex asked as he stepped into the living room of Elle’s apartment where four of the club’s five prospects were busy packing up the things on Elle’s lists.
The things she wanted to take to his house, no, their house now, he reminded himself, were going in a pickup they’d brought from the compound.
While the stuff she wanted in storage was going into a U-Haul, since there was so much more of it.
They’d take that to the storage unit he’d given them a key to.
“So far so good.”
“Any trouble with anything?”
Chase shook his head. “Nope.” He looked around. “At the rate we’re going, it shouldn’t take us more than a couple hours. Then we’ll split up and take things where they’re going.”
“Good,” Hex said, glancing around. “Let me know if you have any trouble. Her ex has a key to the place, but who knows if he’ll show up.
If he does, call me. And don’t tell him where she is or anything else.
Got it?” He looked from face to face, waiting until each one nodded their understanding before moving to the next.
He grabbed one of the boxes the prospects had brought for the job, assembled it, and carried it into her bedroom before pulling out the list she’d given him of things she didn’t want the others to see or touch.
He read through it, since there were only few things there, it didn’t take long.
Top two drawers in dresser.
All nightstand drawers on both sides of bed.
Bottom two drawers in master bath.
This shouldn’t take more than ten or fifteen minutes.
He took his box to the dresser and opened the top drawer, expecting to everything neatly folded.
He was shocked to find it was full of her panties, and they were thrown in haphazardly.
Curious, he closed that drawer and opened the second.
This one was full of her bras, in much the same condition.
That would make things easier. He debated pulling things out by the handful but decided it would be easier to just pull out the drawer and dump it into the box, so that was what he did.
When he’d finished with both drawers the box was full, so he closed it, taped it up, labeled it, and added it to the stack the guys were making to take to the house.
After grabbing a second box, smaller this time, he went to her nightstand and opened the top drawer.
There he found a couple of books. One looked like a diary or journal.
No, he didn’t read it or even open it. He added it to the box as well as the romance novel with what looked like an octopus tentacle on the cover.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to see what was in that one.
It was the contents of the second drawer that made him lift his brows.
There were several toys in there. From standard vibrators to more realistic dildos.
Those didn’t surprise him, but the set of anal plugs in various sizes did.
They gave him ideas. He could easily imagine using some of these with her and seeing how she reacted to each of them.
He pushed his lascivious thoughts from his head as he finished packing up both nightstands, though he didn’t encounter anything else that might raise eyebrows.
In the bathroom all he found was feminine products, and what he understood were standard ones at that. He wasn’t fazed by them, they were part of life, but he could understand why Elle might not want strangers seeing them.
When he’d finished packing up everything on the list she’d given him he checked on the prospects one more time, letting them know he was done in the other rooms and they were free to pack up the rest now, then he left. He had just reached the ground floor when Anderson came in the front door.
Hex didn’t know if there was any reason other than Elle for him to be here, so he let the man walk by, but he didn’t leave just yet as he suspected he would be called upstairs soon.
Sure enough, his phone rang less than three minutes later. He headed back up to her third-floor apartment, not bothering to wait for the elevator and taking the stairs instead.
Hex spotted Anderson as soon as he stepped out of the stairwell. He stood in front of Elle’s door, looking down his nose at Nathan who stood in front of the door blocking the man from going inside.
“I don’t give a flying fuck who you think you are or if you have a key. I have a key, from the only person named on the lease. She has asked that you not go inside again.”
“Where is Elizabeth?” Anderson demanded. “Tell me or I’m calling the police.”
“Go right ahead. I’ve done nothing to her. I’m here on her request. You on the other hand, are not.” Nathan folded his arms across his chest.
Hex saw the prospect’s gaze flick to him then back to the man in front of him. Good. He knew he was there.
“Michael Anderson?” Hex spoke as he closed the distance between them.
Anderson turned and looked at him as if it was a bother.
“Yes, and you are?”
“I’m Hex. Elle thought we might see you today.
She asked that I give this back to you.” He held out the engagement ring she’d given him before they left.
“She also asks that you not contact her again.” Hex did his best to keep it professional, no matter how much he wanted to punch the idiot in front of him in the mouth.
“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”
Hex shook his head.
“You just don’t get it, do you? I’m not telling you what to do, I’m relaying a message. If you ignore Elle’s wishes, then you’ll get to see how I deal with worthless cheating scum like you.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Do you want me to go into it here?” Hex gave the hallway a pointed glance. As if to make his point, a door opened farther down the hall and an older woman stepped out. She headed their way, likely heading for the elevator which was behind Hex.
“Oh, dear,” she said stopping beside Anderson, her eyes on Elle’s apartment door. “Did something happen to Elizabeth?”
“No, ma’am,” Hex said without hesitation. “She’s fine, but she’s moving out. I’ve got some friends here doing the heavy lifting, so she doesn’t have to.”
“That’s so sweet. She said she would be moving soon. Are you her new husband?”
“Not yet.” Hex smiled at the old woman, completely ignoring Anderson. He wanted to say more, but decided it would be best to leave it at that and hope the woman assumed that he had been Elle’s fiancé all along.
“Better hurry then,” she said, patting him on the arm before continuing down the hall.
“Not yet?” Anderson repeated once the old woman had gotten on the elevator and the door closed.
“That’s what I said.” Hex looked back to the man Elle had left at the altar the day before.
“Who exactly do you think you are?” Anderson demanded looking down his nose at Hex once again. His eyes playing over the leather vest, jeans and shit-kicker boots Hex wore and obviously finding them lacking.
“The man who’s going to make her happy. The one who’s not sneaking off to Biloxi every month to barhop and pick up strange men.”
Anderson’s face went white, but that didn’t stop Hex. Hex leaned forward, letting his body and his refusal to back down intimidate the fucker.
“The one who’s not looking at her like a paycheck. The one who’s going to protect her when Harry the Horse comes looking for his money.”
Anderson’s mouth fell open, then moved up and down for a moment, but no sound came out.
“How?” he asked when he’d regained enough of his wits to form words.
“I have connections. I don’t know where you plan to come up with the money to pay off Harry, but it won’t be from Elle or her family. And you better not try. I’ll be watching. You should run along home and get on with your life.”
Anderson seemed to deflate. He stepped around Hex and headed for the elevator, but Hex wasn’t done.
“I’ll know if you contact Mrs. Williamson too.” He didn’t say how or that he’d been given permission to call her Sandy years before. Though, if he had his way, she’d be telling him to call her Mama instead soon, like Elle did. She wasn’t a bad woman, just a little old fashioned and set in her ways.
Anderson didn’t say anything else, just got on the elevator and left.
“That was impressive,” Nathan said once Anderson was gone.
“What?” Hex scowled. He hadn’t done anything remarkable.
“That you got him to back down and leave without having to throw a single punch.”
Hex shook his head. “Hitting him would only give him a reason to try to get revenge or go to the cops.” Hex shrugged. “He wouldn’t get far, but he’s the type who would try. Now he doesn’t have any ammunition.”
It wasn’t that Hex hadn’t wanted to show the little fucker the right way to treat a woman, but he was old enough to know better, and for Elle’s sake, he would do this right.